joining us now from washington, former republican senator of south carolina, jim demint. senator demint recently wrote about why he chose to leave the senate and head to the heritage foundation. in "the washington post," he wrote, in part, this. "the right ideas have the power to change the course of america, which is why the place to launch a conservative revival is the heritage foundation. it used to be said that willie mays's glove was where triples went to die. while congress has become the place where good ideas go to die. in contrast, think tanks such as heritage use objective analysis to discover buy ideas work or don't. conservative policies have proved their worth time and time again. if we're not communicating in a way that makes sense, that clear, we are doing a disservice to our fellow citizens. we need to test the market and our message to communicate more effectively." senator demint, i guess the first question would be, do you apply that -- do you apply that concept to guns? >> well, i've enjoyed hearing your discussion. the reason i left the senate is poli